Belgium, a prominent member of the European Union, has expressed keen interest in developing bilateral relations with Azerbaijan across various sectors of the economy. To facilitate this endeavor, the Belgian-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (Belgazercom) was established at the end of 2024.

In an interview with Report, Stef Goris, the founder and chairman of Belgazercom, shared his vision for the prospects of bilateral cooperation between the two nations. Goris, who is currently concluding his first business visit to Baku, hopes that this trip will be the first of many to come.

- How would you characterize the current state of economic relations between Azerbaijan and Belgium? Which sectors are key for the growth of bilateral trade and investment?

- Well, the key sectors are mainly bilateral. We founded and created the chamber in December last year. And you see that already only after two months, we are already making the first mission to Azerbaijan. So we really want to move forward. Our chamber has ambition to strengthen ties and to work on it.

I think we should identify the sectors which are of a common interest for both countries, particularly logistics, transport, but also chemicals, pharmaceuticals, agro, business. Those sectors are quite developed in Belgium and I think it could be the win-win situation for both countries to develop in these fields. And our goal is to increase the presence of Belgian companies in Azerbaijan.

 
- How many companies are currently part of the chamber? Which sectors do they represent?

- We started with around 30 Belgian companies who are members. So I think this is already quite a success.

And, of course, we are now also addressing Azerbaijani companies. So far we have three Azerbaijani companies who joined us. But we hope after this visit, we can also release the report of this visit and the forecast that we have, and we hope that through the channels that we could explore during our visit these days, we can reach out to more companies in Azerbaijan.

That's what we hope for and we hope to have some kind of a balance and to have the same number of companies on both sides. It doesn't need to be exactly the same, but you know what I mean. We really want to have a chamber that works in both directions.

We want a chamber that represents Belgian interest towards Azerbaijan, and also Azerbaijani interest towards Belgium.

- During your visit to Baku, meetings were planned with the Export and Investment Promotion Agency (AZPROMO) and the Small and Medium Business Development Agency (KOBIA).

- The meeting with AZPROMO, with Mr.Abdullayev, of course, is principal for us. Because AZPROMO is Azerbaijan's export agency. And we have the same kind of agency in Belgium.

And we will inform and put our questions and show our interest. On the other hand, KOBIA is also extremely interesting and important for us because it's dealing with the small and medium enterprises. And this is exactly the group of mainly the Belgian companies, the small and medium enterprises.

 
So I think it's very interesting to have this contact with KOBIA. And according to the meeting that we had today, we came out with a very positive feeling about this meeting. And we truly hope we can rely on their expertise and their knowledge and also the network they have within the small and medium enterprises who could become a partner for Belgian companies in the future.

- What do you think about involving Belgian companies in construction and restoration works in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan? Does the chamber consider this issue as one of the priority tasks?

- There are indeed several large construction companies in Belgium, and one of them - Besix, has already implemented several major projects in Azerbaijan. Of course, the matter of participation in construction and restoration works is related to tenders, and we have experience working with these companies. However, our main focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises. We strive to develop sustainable cooperation and long-term partnerships, creating joint ventures and identifying potential partners for Belgian companies and vice versa. This, in my opinion, is the main direction of our mission.

 
- Azerbaijan recently hosted the 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) . Did this event have a positive impact on the development of business relations between Azerbaijan and Belgium?

- Well, let me say first of all that for the Belgian side I think it was extremely important because our Prime Minister attended the COP29. He also met with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and it's the first time that the Belgian Prime Minister ever visited your country. So I think COP29 was from that point of view also extremely important for our country.

And as we have learned from that meeting, the main focus was put exactly on external trade, on mutual trade and business between the two countries. When there was the meeting with our prime minister, which has also triggered us after the COP to say, well, let's start with the Chamber of Commerce because there is a genuine interest from the governments that we should improve, we should enhance this. But initiatives should come not from the government, but also from the business people from both sides.

- Are you in close relations with Azerbaijan Embassy in Belgium?

- We work with both embassies. We are in a good contact with Ambassador Vagif Sadigov and the Azerbaijani embassy in Belgium actively supports our initiative.

The same goes for the Belgian embassy in Baku, where we had a meeting with Ambassador Julien de Fraipont. So it's very good for us to feel that we have the support from both governments and from both embassies. But once again it's very important for us to emphasize that we are a strictly neutral organization.

 
We are a non-profit organization. Our members are only businessmen. We don't have any politicians or officials or administrations in our membership or in our circles, we are not supervised by them. I think that this is an important moment that should be emphasized.

- Sustainable development and innovations are becoming key priorities in international business. How does your chamber plan to support Belgian companies in this direction?

- Well, in Belgium we have some experience in renewable energy. For instance, we are one of the leaders in windmill energy, windmill turbines, also offshore. We have some major companies in Belgium that are very skilled in working worldwide in this field.

And at this moment they are already showing genuine interest in potential investment in Azerbaijan especially that the Azerbaijani government is putting a lot of focus on renewable energy, on green technology. We have developed this kind of skills and technology.

And we are very happy to present it here and to see if we can find common ground to implement it.

 
- I believe that active involvement of Belgian companies in trade with Azerbaijan may require support from governments, for example, in reducing export-import duties?

- This could be one of the aspects that we will consider in the future. Of course, during the next stages of the chamber's development, we will for sure face some liabilities and obstacles from both sides. But this is one of the exactly one of the missions we have is to identify and to try to find solutions if there is any necessity for this.